The Heroic Six: Lost Memories
by Writer4519
Summary: Penny, Wilbur, Violet, and Hiro have been friends for years, and when people are in danger, the Futuristic Four and Big Hero 6 come together to stop him. After Obake's machine explodes, Hiro and Penny are teleported to separate places and lose their memories. Penny finds herself meeting Riley while Hiro meets Miguel. Xover between Coco, MTR, Incredibles, Inside Out, BH6, and Bolt
1. The Missing Heroes

Full summary:

 **Penny Forrester, Wilbur Robinson, Violet Parr, and Hiro Hamada have been best friends since they were nine, and when Obake puts his plan into action, the Futuristic Four and Big Hero 6 come together to stop him and save the city. Although they manage to contain the star and save San Fransokyo, Obake's machine explodes, and Hiro and Penny find themselves in two separate locations without any memories except for their nicknames: Ro and Pen. Penny is in San Francisco, which is a few miles south of San Fransokyo, and she meets a girl called Riley and winds up going on a mission to retrieve her memories and save Riley from herself. Hiro finds himself in Santa Cecilia and meets a boy named Miguel. Together, they will go on an adventure through the Land Of The Dead to discover Miguel's family history and hopefully unlock Hiro's memories before they become permanent residents of the Land Of The Dead. Meanwhile, their friends are doing everything they can to find them.**

* * *

 _Hello, everyone! This is my first Futuristic Four story, so I would greatly appreciate some feedback. Personally, I think this chapter turned out better than I expected, but I am always looking to improve when it comes to writing, so please, feel free to leave a review or PM me with any thoughts you have. Thanks!_

 ** _Disclaimer: This story is fiction. Fanfiction, to be precise. I am not claiming this story to be canon, nor am I claiming characters, settings, or anything you recognize as my own. Thank you._**

* * *

Chapter One: The End Of The Beginning

* * *

The text came in at exactly 4:28 pm.

Wilbur Robinson yelped as a cap flew off of his father's newest invention and crashed into the wall directly where his head would've been if he hadn't ducked.

"Sorry, Wilbur!" Cornelius called, sheepishly, as the demonstration he'd been giving his family failed. "Guess there's still a few kinks for me to work out."

"It's cool, Dad," Wilbur replied before his phone dinged, and he pulled it out of his pocket to see a new text message from one of his best friends, Hiro Hamada.

 **SOS!**

Wilbur frowned at the screaming desperation of the message and typed in a message of his own.

 _What's up?_

Wilbur waited a solid five minutes, but there was no answer. If it was an emergency, wouldn't Hiro have replied within seconds?

Unless he couldn't…

A few moments later, another ding sounded, but the message wasn't from Hiro. It was from Violet.

Did Hiro send you an SOS message?

 _Yes, but he isn't replying to any messages I send him_ , Wilbur wrote back.

Me, neither, Violet replied. Penny got a message, too. We both tried calling him (You know Hiro. He wouldn't send a message like that unless it was urgent), but he didn't answer.

 _How soon can you get to San Fransokyo?_

If I use my force field transportation method… twelve minutes at least. You?

 _I'll take the hover car. I tweaked it a bit, so it can go up to 120 miles an hour._

I'll text Penny and pick her up on the way.

"Okay, it is going to work this time," Cornelius grinned as he twisted the last screw with his wrench.

"Sorry, Dad, but I've got to go. I need to go see one of my friends," Wilbur said as he stood up.

"Which one? And why?" Franny asked. Normally, Wilbur's mom gave him a fair amount of freedom, but ever since the time traveling incident, she always needed to know where he was and why he was there, and Wilbur didn't blame her. If he were the parent of a child that time traveled without permission, nearly destroyed the time line, and ceased to exist for half an hour, he'd be a little overprotective, too.

"Hiro, and as for why… that is an excellent question," Wilbur told her before strolling around the corner and sprinting towards the garage the moment he was out of sight of his family.

Wilbur opened the door to the red hover car and hopped into the driver's seat. The hover car could drive by itself, so Wilbur simply hit a few buttons to increase the speed and the height off the ground before finding the button that meant drive.

Wilbur barely had time to open the garage door before he was out, racing high above everyone and barely hanging onto his stomach.

It took him approximately four minutes and thirteen seconds to travel what was typically a 30-45 minute drive, and by the time he stopped in front of the Lucky Cat Café, he was breathing heavily and swallowing to stop his stomach from ejecting its contents as he literally rolled out of the car and onto the sidewalk. He got a few weird glances, but he didn't care as he barely stopped himself from kissing the ground.

"Note to self," he muttered. "Let's never do that again."

Wilbur stumbled to his feet and walked into the café, a bell dinging above his head as he walked inside.

"Aunt Cass!" Wilbur called. Cass was not Wilbur's aunt from a biological stand point, but she was everybody's aunt, just like… just like Tadashi used to be everyone's big brother.

"Wilbur, I didn't know you were coming over," Cass exclaimed.

 _Neither did I_ , Wilbur thought.

"Hiro's in the garage," she told him.

"Thanks!" Wilbur called before he walked out the door and into Hiro's workshop. "Hiro, this had better be good. You had us all worried… sick…" Wilbur trailed off as he realized the garage was empty, and he stared around in confusion.

Hiro's garage was always a mess, but it was a mess of things that made sense, like tools and spare parts and completed and partially completed inventions, but some of this stuff… some of this stuff didn't make any sense.

A CPU with a weird red face on it, pieces of what appeared to be red and purple armor scattered across the floor, and that was before Wilbur noticed the elaborate conspiracy board.

The board had pictures, articles, a few index cards, and more, all connected by strings, most of which lead to an area labeled as The Bay, along with the same red face Wilbur saw on the CPU.

"Where's Hiro?" Violet asked as her and Penny walked into the room.

"I don't know, but you guys need to see this," Wilbur told them.

Violet stood beside him and examined the board.

"It looks like Hiro was fighting a super villain without us," the Super deadpanned.

"It looks like he was fighting a lot of super villains without us," Penny corrected, and they turned to see her standing in front of a screen with a bunch of articles pulled up. They were all about some kind of super team and had various notes scrawled across each one with an electronic sketching pen.

"This was in a file titled Big Hero 6," Penny told them.

"I've heard of them," Wilbur realized. "My dad praises them for their hand-made equipment and creative use of technology in their gear," he remembered. "I know we haven't seen each other in a few months, what with me being grounded, Penny being an actress up until a month ago, and Hiro starting college, but… Hiro is apart of this super team? And he didn't _tell_ us?"

"That doesn't surprise me," Violet said, more to herself than to them. "He probably thought we were too busy. He's very independent, as you know. We have to assume the SOS meant he needed help fighting a super villain. It's the only thing that would warrant an urgent message like that. But his armor is still here, so unless he has spare armor he's using right now, someone might have figured out his identity."

"Who are you?" a voice demanded from behind them, and the three teenagers whipped around to see a young woman with short black hair, highlighted with purple stripes, standing in the doorway to the garage.

"GoGo, stand down," an African-American man with long dark brown hair told the young woman. "This is Wilbur, Violet, and Penny, Hiro's friends. Remember? They were there when Tadashi introduced us to Hiro, and they were at the showcase."

GoGo nodded. "I remember. What are you three doing here?"

"Hiro sent us an SOS message," Wilbur answered. "Do you know where he is?"

The four young adults exchanged glances, and Honey Lemon stepped forward.

"We can explain everything," she promised. "But it's a long story, and we don't have a lot of time."

Ten minutes later, the story was completed, and the four teens stared at the college students for a few seconds.

"So Hiro's been kidnapped by a guy who intends to create a star and use it to 'recreate' San Fransokyo, destroying the city in the process, and you want to get to the highest point in the city to scan for an energy surge to stop the star from collapsing, save the city, and hopefully find Hiro?" Penny summed up.

Fred nodded. "Pretty much."

Violet shrugged. "Let's go," she said, and the three friends pulled their backpacks (they always carried backpacks because danger had a tendency to find them, and it was always good to have some emergency supplies, like an extra phone or a first aid kit, on hand) off of their shoulders and withdrew folded up scooters.

"You just carry those around in your backpacks?" Wasabi asked.

Wilbur nodded. "You never know when you're going to get chased by super villains."

Penny and Wilbur turned to Violet with raised eyebrows and that _yes-we're-talking-about-you_ look.

"That was one time! Let it go!" Violet groaned before they walked out of the garage.

"Remind me, when we get Hiro back, to ask them to tell us that story," Fred chuckled before Mini-Max leaped onto his shoulder, and he strolled out of the garage, followed by his three friends.

* * *

"Aren't you scared, Wasabi?" GoGo asked as Penny worked on scanning for the energy surge (Penny may have only been a spy on a television show, but she was certainly clever enough to be one in real life if the need for one ever arises).

"Oh, I'm terrified. I'm just more scared of the whole city being wiped out," Wasabi told them.

"Hey, guys, are you there?" Hiro's voice came through the communication gadget in the ears of the four students, making all of their heads jerk up.

"Hiro!" Honey Lemon exclaimed.

"Where are you?" GoGo demanded.

"I'm leaving the café now. Obake captured me. He has Baymax. We need to stop that star; do you know where it is?"

As if on cue, a small ding sounded from the device in Penny's lap.

"We do now," she said. "There is a huge energy surge at the Lighthouse."

"Got it," GoGo said. "Hiro, the device is at the Lighthouse. What's the plan?"

"I'll head to the Lighthouse to get the energy amplifier and shut down the machine."

"All right. We'll send some back up. The last thing we need is you getting captured again. Something tells me we'll need all hands on deck for this," GoGo told Hiro before looking up to tell Wilbur, Penny, and Violet to go help Hiro, but they were already gone.

"I think I finally figured out why they're friends," Honey Lemon said. "They're a lot more alike than I thought."

"Yeah," Wasabi agreed. "They're all loyal, stubborn kids that attract more danger than anyone else on the planet and somehow always get out of it."

The other three nodded in agreement with his words.

* * *

Hiro shouted as he clung to Sky-Max, the wind roaring in his ears as he sped towards the Lighthouse, which loomed ahead of him, arcs of blue and purple electricity crackling in and around the structure.

But what truly attracted Hiro's attention were the three kids pressing themselves against the rail, electricity bouncing off of the force field that had formed around them.

"You guys got my message!" Hiro exclaimed as Violet lowered her force field just long enough for Hiro to jump off of Sky-Max and onto the floor. Sky-Max hovered nearby, just out of reach of the dangerous amount of electricity sparking in the air.

"We haven't gotten an SOS message from you since you got kidnapped by that bot fighter when you were twelve," Wilbur pointed out (story for another time). "Your SOS messages are usually pretty urgent, so of course we dropped everything to come."

Hiro smiled. "Thanks, guys. Vi, can you keep your force field up long enough for me to get to that machine?" Hiro asked, pointing to the machine that was currently the source of the energy flying around them.

Violet nodded. "But I'll need to lower my force field for you to dismantle the machine. There's a lot of electricity. One hit from these things," she gestured to the arcs of energy dancing around them, "could give you third or even second degree burns, so be careful, Ro."

"I will. Violet, keep your force field up. Pen, Wil, I need you to cover me while I shut down the machine. Here, take my gloves," Hiro said, taking off the pieces of his gear and handing one to Penny and one to Wilbur. "They're electromagnetic, so use them to swat aside the arcs of electricity if they get too close. Let's do this."

The four teenagers shuffled forward, Violet carefully moving while keeping her shield up, and once they were right beside the machine, Violet let her shield drop, and Wilbur and Penny immediately went to work on swatting aside any energy while Hiro reached into the machine, wincing as a small burst of energy burned his wrist, but he didn't let the pain stop him. He grabbed the energy amplifier, and the minute he was away from the machine, Violet activated her force field once again.

No one was majorly injured in the ordeal. Violet looked exhausted from the amount of energy she was using to keep her force field up. Wilbur had a rip in his shirt where an arc of electricity burned through the fabric, and Hiro saw a moderate burn on his side through the hole in his shirt. Penny had a bruise on her arm from bumping into the machine to avoid some stray energy, and she had a small burn on her cheek, which would likely heal in a few days.

The machine was shut down. There were minimal injuries, and the city was safe. Their work here was done.

* * *

The teenagers used Sky-Max to return to the ground, and Hiro rode on the back of Wilbur's scooter as the four teenagers returned to the building where the other four members of Big Hero 6 and a weird purple monster were waiting for them. The three teens didn't question the monster because the superheroes weren't attacking him (it?), so they assumed Big Hero 6 must trust the monster.

"We did it!" Hiro cheered, and the nine heroes embraced, but before a celebration could even begin, a flickering light caught their attention as an orb of energy rose above the Lighthouse.

"Oh, no," Violet muttered.

"The machine became self-sustaining," Honey Lemon realized.

"What do we do now?" Penny asked.

"We evacuate as many as we can, and we try to stop that star," Hiro answered.

"How?" Wasabi inquired. "A shock wave that powerful? We can't stop something like that…"

"Unless we have a more powerful opposite force," Hiro added.

"Like a wave," GoGo suggested.

"But we'd need something huge to cause a wave that big," Wilbur pointed out.

Hiro and Fred exchanged glances with small smiles on their faces.

"We have something like that," Hiro assured them. "Fred, Penny, we're going to stop that star. GoGo, Wasabi, evacuate the docks, the bay, anywhere that can be affected by the wave. Violet, Wilbur, go to Obake's location and get Baymax. If something goes wrong, we're going to need Baymax to do some rescuing. Globby, Honey Lemon, here's what you have to do…"

* * *

Ten minutes later, everyone was getting into position. GoGo and Wasabi had evacuated everyone in the bay, including a bunch of kids on a field trip, and had battled Momacase. Now, GoGo was hiding in an alleyway with a bunch of small animals, a frightened kitten in her arms, while Wasabi stood with the kids on the edge of a high cliff, holding the hand of a small girl, as they waited to see if the plan would succeed. Globby was stretched from one side of the bay to the other with balls of blue chemicals lined on top of his body to keep the wave contained, and Honey Lemon stood nearby with her Chem-Purse.

"You guys ready for this?" Hiro asked. Penny, Fred, and Hiro were seated in the seats inside of the Kaiju, strapped in side by side while they waited for the right moment.

"Ready as we'll ever be," Penny answered, trying and failing to disguise the nervousness in her voice.

"I just want you to know... it's been an honor being superheroes with you," Fred told Hiro.

"And I'm glad we're friends," Penny smiled at Hiro before resting her hand on the lever that would turn on the Kaiju when she pulled it downward. "Now, let's do this."

They waited…

…

…

…

And they were off as the star collapsed, the Kaiju (why Fred and Hiro just happened to have that on hand, Penny had no idea, and she didn't have time to ask) leaping into the air until it broke through the clouds, displaying the sun beyond the gray clouds that had gathered over San Fransokyo, as though even the sky sensed the danger and potential tragedy of the grim situation.

They hung in the sky for a moment, and Penny and Hiro exchanged one last glance before they were falling.

The three of them and Mini-Max rose off of their seats, the seat belts barely keeping them in their chairs, as they tumbled through the air until they finally crashed into the bay.

A wave bigger than anything Penny had ever seen crashed over the star, enclosing around the ball of fire and containing the shock wave. The shock wave was absorbed by the water, but the Kaiju was struck head on by the aftermath of the powerful shocks, and the light from the star as it imploded blinded them.

And then they knew nothing else.

* * *

Rescuing Baymax wasn't very hard. Rescuing Obake was a whole other matter.

When Wilbur and Violet arrived at the sea cave, they found Baymax standing outside.

"Baymax?" Violet asked.

Baymax turned to them. "Obake is still inside. He told me to go to Hiro."

Wilbur and Violet turned to the crumbling sea cave before looking back at Baymax.

"Baymax, go help the others. We'll get Obake!" Wilbur shouted before the teenagers sprinted into the cave, following the whirring of machinery into what looked like some kind of workshop. A man who Wilbur and Violet assumed was Obake glanced up in confusion; he was unharmed, but a rock crashed to the floor dangerously close to him a moment later. The ceiling was about to come down.

Violet ran forward, followed by Wilbur, and her force field appeared over them, shaking and flickering as boulder after boulder bounced off of it. Obake was in too much shock to do anything other than stare until finally, the sea cave was flooded with water as the walls and the ground fell to pieces and scattered throughout the bay.

Wilbur grabbed Obake by the arm with one hand and a barely conscious Violet with the other, dragging them to the surface of the bay and breaking free of the water. Wilbur let go of Obake, confident that the man would have a hard time escaping in the middle of the bay and held Violet in his arms as she slipped into slumber, her energy leaving her after she pushed her powers to the limit.

Wilbur pulled Violet to shore, followed by Obake, and holding Violet up with one arm, he gripped Obake's arm with the other and pulled him towards the docks without even sparing the villain a glance. Wilbur was a little shocked when Obake didn't even resist, but he didn't question it. He was more worried about Penny and Hiro.

Wilbur found Globby and Big Hero 6 standing on the docks; Fred was lying on the ground with a trickle of blood dripping down the side of his face from a head injury, and he was out cold. Mini-Max was hovering over his sidekick in concern, reminding Wilbur of the first time Carl showed true human emotion when he worried for Wilbur after the boy broke his arm when he was ten after an adventure with Penny, Hiro, and Violet. Carl had shown hints of human emotion before then, but that was the first time it was so obvious. But Wilbur also knew that when robots showed worry, there was probably something to worry about.

That's when Wilbur realized that Penny and Hiro were no where in sight.

"Where are Penny and Hiro?" Wilbur asked as he lowered Violet, who was beginning to wake up, to the ground beside Fred.

GoGo looked scared, and Wilbur nearly fainted right there because he didn't know GoGo well, but he knew she wasn't one to show fear.

"The shock wave hit the Kaiju," she explained. "Fred was knocked out. By the time Baymax got there, Penny and Hiro had disappeared. Baymax and Mini-Max both scanned for them. They didn't find them."

Wilbur's vision tunneled with this piece of news. That couldn't be right… Maybe he had misheard her. Yeah, that had to be it because Penny and Hiro couldn't just be _gone_. He had been through everything with his three friends. Danger, adventures, injuries, heart break, laughter, depression, and everything in between. They had always been there for him, and he had always been there for them. It had always been _PennyHiroWilburandViolet_. A world without Penny and Hiro, a world without two of his best friends, just felt wrong. He felt like the world was put on pause, like everything, even his mind, had frozen, except for a single thought that struck him like a lightning bolt.

The city was safe. The bad guy was defeated…

But Penny and Hiro were gone.

* * *

 _Three things I need to note:_

 _1\. You will find out why Fred wasn't teleported like Penny and Hiro in a later chapter._

 _2\. When Violet mentions her force field transportation method while she is texting Wilbur, she is referring to how she rolled her force field to travel in The Incredibles and escaped the bad guys._

 _3\. Do not let Obake's lack of resistance fool you. His plan may have failed, but his game isn't over yet._

 _Once again, please review or PM me with your thoughts on what you liked about the chapter or with things I need to improve on. Also, editing is not my strong suit, so if you notice any spelling/grammar/punctuation errors, feel free to inform me, so I can correct them. Thank you, and I will see you with the second chapter hopefully sometime next week._


	2. Penny: Meeting Riley Anderson

_Hello, everyone. I'm back with chapter 2. Thanksgiving was on Thursday, so I hope those of you who celebrate it had a wonderful holiday, and I hope you enjoy this chapter._

 _I would like to thank Hoytti for following this story, and I would like to thank Mandalorian115 for following and favoriting this story. Thank you to everyone who read the first chapter, and I hope you like the story so far._

 ** _Disclaimer: I do not own Coco, Big Hero 6, Meet The Robinsons, Inside Out, Bolt, Incredibles, or any other Disney movie. Anything you recognize belongs to its rightful owners, and this story is only done for fun and is completely nonprofit._**

* * *

 **(Chapter Two) Penny: Meeting Riley Anderson**

* * *

She didn't remember much. A few flashes of light, a cry of a word… a word on the edge of her mind that she couldn't quite grasp. A humungous pain in her head, an unbearable agony throughout her entire body as she felt like someone was ripping her apart, dismantling her molecules and then crashing them back together. She was screaming (or was she? She actually wasn't sure if the screams she heard were her own because everything felt so far away as she was sucked into a vortex of pain), and there was something wrapping around her. It was cool and refreshing, almost soothing the pain, but just when she thought the worst was over, the torturous feeling intensified until she knew nothing except for the burning pain that tore through her body right down to her soul.

And then she knew nothing at all.

* * *

Riley Anderson hated San Francisco. She hated the school she attended, hated the house she had to live in, and while she loved her parents, she was angry at them for forcing their family to move, uprooting her entire life in the process.

Riley kept her head down as she strolled through the schoolyard, avoiding the eyes of the classmates that had seen her cry. That was another thing. She had cried. _At school_. Just when she thought moving alone was the worst thing that could have happened to her.

Riley gripped the straps of her backpack and hunched down into her yellow jacket as much as she could to avoid being seen by any of the students.

A more logical part of Riley told her that these were eleven and twelve year old kids, just like her. They had probably already forgotten about her embarrassing moment during class when tears had streamed down her cheeks as an unbearable kind of sadness had crashed into her out of no where.

That thought didn't make her feel any better, though.

The eleven year old finally exited the schoolyard and started heading towards her house- not her home. _Never_ her home- trying to forget about the whole day and focus on the positives….

What were the positives again?

Riley was two feet from her front door when she heard it. A groan from the alleyway between her house and the neighbor's. A human groan that sounded almost pained.

 _(Meanwhile in Riley's head…_

 _"Maybe we should check it out."_

 _"Anger, are you insane? Nothing good ever happened in dark alleys."_

 _"Well, excuse me for trying to think like Joy, Fear!"_

 _"That alleyway is disgusting. It's full of trash and germs and bugs and gross stuff!"_

 _"Guys, you know Joy would want to check it out. What if someone's hurt? The best thing we can do until Joy gets back is think. Like. Joy. We are checking it out.")_

Riley slowly walked into the alley, fighting down the fear and the memories of all those crime shows that displayed what happened to people who entered dark creepy alleys, and she stood on the tips of her toes, ready to dash away at the first sign of danger.

Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, at first. A few cardboard boxes; trashcans both standing upright and kicked over; random pieces of litter, like paper cups and fast food bags. Flies and other bugs gathered over the trashcans.

The groan sounded again, and Riley nearly leaped out of her skin at the sudden sound as she followed the noise to…

A girl?

Riley had expected a lot of things. A murderer, a kidnapper, a mugger, maybe even a simple raccoon or a stray dog, but the one thing she hadn't expected was a female teenager, only a little older than her. She couldn't have been older than thirteen, and she was barely conscious.

Riley crept closer, one hand on her backpack, ready to start swinging the bag as a weapon if the girl made any sudden movements, and she leaned over the girl to get a closer look.

The girl was, in fact, a very young teenager. She wore a yellow shirt and blue jean shorts; her red hair stopped at her chin, and her pale skin was dotted with freckles. She had a small cut on her forehead and a burn on her cheek; there were scrapes along her arms and a rip in her shirt, bruises marring her delicate skin. Her clothes were wrinkled and cold, like they had previously been wet before drying over a period of time; Riley didn't know how long the girl had been laying there before she was found, but the blood dripping from her cuts had long since dried, and she was shivering in her damp clothes.

The girl groaned again, bringing Riley back to reality.

 _(Meanwhile in Riley's head…_

 _"We can't just leave her here!"_

 _"We're not going to, Fear. Anger, get me a lightbulb. I have an idea.")_

Riley lightly touched the girl's arm, waiting for the teen to come up swinging, but she didn't; whatever had happened to her, it left her extremely dazed, as she barely stirred at Riley's light touch.

Riley grabbed the girl's wrist and slung the thin, bruised arm over her shoulder, heaving the girl into a standing position and grunting from the sudden weight. The girl was only around ninety pounds, give or take a few, but for an eleven year old girl, that was still a lot of weight to carry.

Luckily, the journey wasn't far; Riley ventured around the corner and out of the alley, half-carrying-half-dragging the teen up the steps to her house, before knocking on her front door and waiting anxiously for said door to open.

The door was opened by her puzzled and worried father.

"Riley, you're late. We were wor-" her father abruptly cut his scolding off when he noticed that his daughter was not alone.

"Dad, please! She's hurt! She needs help!" Riley exclaimed, adjusting the girl at her side to avoid dropping her.

"Bring her inside," her father instructed, his concern for Riley turning into concern for the injured girl that was only a year or two older than his own child.

Riley crossed the threshold while supporting the girl's weight, and once they were inside, her father took the young girl from Riley, carrying her with one arm around her shoulders and the other under her knees, before resting her on the floor of the living room as comfortably and as gently as he possibly could.

Riley's mom entered the living room and upon seeing the beaten up thirteen year old girl, she went straight into 'Mom Mode,' pulling her hair back and kneeling beside the teenager.

"Bill, go next door. The man that lives there is a doctor. Riley, I need a cold washcloth, some bandages, and something to disinfect these wounds," Kate Anderson ordered, sternly, as she started examining the bruises and scratches covering the poor girl's skin to assess the damage and take action accordingly.

The father and daughter rushed to obey with Bill leaving the house to dash next door and retrieve the doctor his wife mentioned while Riley hurried to gather the supplies her mother asked for. The moving truck had yet to arrive, but the family did buy a few washcloths to start tidying the place up and had a first aid kit in case of an injury.

Riley returned to the living room first, handing the items to her mother, and she watched in concern for the complete stranger she found as her mother cleaned the dried blood in order to better see the full extent of any cuts or scrapes, taking extra time to clean the head wound. After that, she slowly dripped disinfectant into each cut and scrape (Riley looked at all the pus and gunk that bubbled out of the gashes, and she wondered how long this girl had been lying in that alleyway. How long would she have laid there if Riley hadn't found her?) and sticking bandages over any cut that needed it. Kate plastered a bandage over the cut on the girl's head and leaned back as the girl began to stir; throughout the process, the strange girl had done little more than wince and flinch at the sting of the disinfectant cleansing her wounds.

The doctor arrived only a moment later, and the man- an older guy with thinning black hair, brown eyes, and a thin mustache on his upper lip- rested his medical bag on the floor. He was currently in a bathrobe and looked tired, which probably meant the man had worked the night shift the previous night and Bill had likely woken the man up.

The doctor pulled on some latex gloves and prepared a small flashlight just as the girl cracked her eyes open at last, flinching at the late afternoon light filtering through the window.

The girl's blue eyes glanced around the room as her hand slowly lifted off of the ground and held her head, but when she tried to sit up, the doctor gently pushed her back down.

"Don't try to sit up," the doctor advised. "Can you tell me your name?"

The girl blinked. "I… I don't remember."

* * *

She was pulled out of unconsciousness by the feeling of some sort of rubber touching her arm, and she couldn't have been more thankful for the shred of awareness she felt after so many minutes of trying to find the strength to pull herself out of the darkness that refused to release her.

Her head was pounding, as though someone had wacked her upside the skull with something heavy, and she slowly rose her hand (she distantly acknowledged that it was harder to lift her arm and move in general than she assumed it would be) to her head to try and sooth the dull throb that originated in the left side of her forehead and tightened like a band around her cranium.

Her eyes scanned the room, taking in her surroundings and quickly realizing that she was not alone.

She was laying on a hard wood floor and staring at a dusty ceiling with an older man in a bathrobe leaning over her. A man with brown hair and a mustache leaned against the wall beside a door a few feet away, probably to avoid crowding her. A woman with her light brown hair pulled back in a messy ponytail knelt beside her, concerned eyes glinting in her spectacles, which were round with red frames. A girl with light brown hair, almost a dark blonde shade, was standing nearby, wearing a yellow jacket and dawning a slightly worried gaze.

After suddenly realizing that she didn't recognize any of these people or the house she was in, she tried to sit up, to be in a better position to fight or bolt if she needed to-

Bolt? Why did that word sound so familiar?

The man in the bathrobe lightly pushed her back into a position where she was lying down with the soft order to not try to sit up. She wondered why he didn't want her to move too much before a wave of nausea assaulted her, and she would've fallen over anyway if the doctor hadn't made her lay back down.

Right. Moving: bad. Resting: good.

"Can you tell me your name?" the man inquired, and she opened her mouth to do so before she made a terrifying realization.

She didn't know her own name.

"I-I don't remember," she stammered, but she felt like she was trying to tell _herself_ about her non-existent memory more than these strangers.

"I see," the doctor said, not looking entirely shocked. "Head injuries can cause amnesia. Do you remember anything? What happened to you, perhaps?"

She shook her head. "No. I-I remember…"

Pain. Agony flaring through her entire being as though every cell in her body were on fire…

Something cold wrapping around her ankles, rising slowly until it covered her head, and when she inhaled, something flowed down her throat while her lungs protested. Water, maybe?

Someone- a familiar voice yet she couldn't place a name or gauge the age of the person the voice belonged to or even tell what the gender of the person was- yelling something, a word on the tip of her tongue. If only she could reach a little further, she could remember what he or she said-

Got it.

"Pain," she answered. "A lot of it, and… and water. I-I was breathing it in. Someone was yelling, and I-I think they were saying Ren or Ten or… Pen, that's it. That's what they were saying," she told the people in the room.

She was absolutely certain that's what the person was saying. If only she knew why they were shouting that or better yet, who the owner of the voice was.

The three adults in the room exchanged glances, as though trying to decide whether or not her story was true.

Meanwhile, the young girl smiled before responding to the amnesiac girl.

"Pen… That's what we can call you until we find out your real name," she suggested, sitting beside the newly dubbed Pen.

Pen grinned. "I like it."

A piece of the puzzle clicked into place when the girl's blue eyes met her own, a fuzzy image of this girl leaning over her before the unconsciousness sucked her back into the sea of blackness.

"You… you were the one who found me," Pen realized.

The girl nodded. "Yeah, you were lying in the alley. My name is Riley."

"Thank you for helping me. Most people probably would've left me there," Pen told her, shaking Riley's hand. Neither girl noticed the adults exit the room and enter the kitchen to discuss the current predicament.

"What do you suggest we do?" Bill asked his wife and the man as the doctor and Riley's parents gathered in a circle inside the kitchen.

"Well, amnesia is common with head injuries, and judging by this girl's injuries, the concussion may not be the only cause of her memory loss," the doctor explained. "If she went through a traumatic experience, her mind may not be ready to remember. By the slight memory she does have, it sounds like she was drowning before she ended up here, but the question is… how did she get here? The bay is miles away, and there's no where around here she could've drowned, not even a lake.

"Her memories will likely return in time, but there's no telling how long that will be. It could be days; it could be months. You can call the police, and they can search for her in the system to see if she's a missing child, but if nothing comes up, they'll need to find her a place to stay. A hospital or a foster home or a group home, perhaps."

Kate peaked into the living room to see Riley and Pen laughing together while they played some kind of game with their hands. Concentration, she considered, or Chopsticks? Whatever game it was, the girls seemed to be really hitting it off as one of them made a mistake, and they dissolved into giggles before resuming the game. It appeared to be the beginnings of a friendship.

Kate thought about what she would've been like if it were Riley that lost her memory and ended up what could've been several miles away from home. She would've wanted Riley to be safe with people she could trust, not in a crowded group home or locked away in a hospital, confused and alone, or in a foster home with complete strangers.

Pen didn't completely know Riley or Bill or Kate, but Riley had saved her, and Bill and Kate had taken care of her, so she did trust them on some level. Somehow, Kate just knew that Pen was a good kid. Maybe it was her mother's intuition, and that instinct had never steered her wrong before. Pen was a good girl, a friendly girl, and to some extent, she did trust Bill and Kate, and she certainly trusted Riley.

Wouldn't they be breaking that trust if they just shoved her off to someone else, to people Pen didn't know, nor trust?

The doctor had stepped away to phone the police and let them know about the amnesiac, injured girl that had been found while Kate glanced at Bill, and Bill smiled.

Bill always knew what Kate was thinking before she even said it aloud.

"We'll talk to the police, and if she isn't in the system, we'll ask if she can stay with us," Bill told his wife, and Kate stood on the tips of her toes to press a kiss to her husband's lips.

"I knew there was a reason I married you," Kate joked as she hugged the most caring man she had ever met.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the other room, a bond was quickly forming between the two girls as they finished their tenth game of Concentration, their stomachs aching from laughter, when a knock sounded at the door.

Kate opened the door and smiled at the two police officers that arrived, stepping aside to allow them entrance to the house.

"You are… Pen, I presume?" one of them asked the red haired girl after taking notice of the injuries the doctor had mentioned over the phone.

Pen nodded. "Yes."

"Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?" The officer asked.

"Of course not," Pen responded.

"All right… Dr. Adams mentioned you had amnesia, so let's start with anything that you _do_ remember," the officer said, his tone almost bored.

"I, um, I remember pain. A lot of it. It felt like I was being ripped apart, and there was… there was something wrapping around me. It almost soothed the pain until I breathed it in, and suddenly, I couldn't breathe. I think I was underwater. I heard someone yelling the word Pen, and then everything went dark for... I don't know how long. I woke up briefly when Riley found me," Pen stated, gesturing to the brown haired girl sitting cross legged beside her.

"How did you find her?" The other officer spoke, addressing Riley this time.

Riley blinked, surprised at being spoken to. "I was walking home from school when I heard groaning from the alleyway beside our house. I didn't think going into a dark alley was the best idea, but I was scared that someone might be hurt. I'm glad I decided to go into the alley. Who knows how long Pen would've been there if I hadn't found her…" Riley trailed off.

"And you don't remember a full name, not even a first name?" one officer drawled.

Kate resisted the urge to glare at the officers, who looked like they weren't interested in the case of this injured child at all.

Pen shook her head.

"All right," one officer said, flatly. "We'll run her description through missing persons and let you know if anything comes up. We can take the girl to a group home until-"

"The girl's name, at least for the time being, is Pen, and if it is all right with you, officers, we would like her to stay here," Kate snapped, scathingly.

The younger of the two officers blinked and turned to his co-worker.

"The group homes are overcrowded, and they do have a daughter of their own," the man mentioned, which was the most intelligent thing either of them had said since they walked through the door.

The other officer shrugged. "I don't see any problems with it. We'll get back to you if we have any information," he said before the officers departed the house.

"Ma'am, I couldn't ask you to…" Pen began, stunned by the family's seemingly endless generosity. "I mean, you've already done so much for me."

"Pen, we would be happy to have you here. Riley, I know your room is kind of small, but-"

"Mom, I would love to share with Pen," Riley interrupted her mother with a bright smile on her face.

"Great. Why don't you show Pen to your room?" Kate suggested.

Riley nodded. "Sure. Come on, Pen. It's not much, especially since the moving van won't be here until Tuesday with the furniture, but we can get you a sleeping bag if that's all right."

"Of course!" Pen exclaimed as the two girls began climbing the stairs.

"Oh, and Pen, one more thing!" Kate called, causing Pen to stop midstep and turn to face her current caretaker.

"Yes, ma'am?" Pen asked, politely.

"Please... call me Kate," the woman told her with a soft smile.

Pen nodded. "Okay… Kate."

As Pen walked up the stairs, Kate embraced her husband and wondered how she could feel such a strong connection with a girl she had only met less than two hours ago.

Maybe it was because she knew that Riley needed a friend after such a big change in her life, and Pen could offer something to her daughter that Kate couldn't: friendship with someone her own age. The way Riley bonded with Pen so quickly, it was like Riley had accepted the girl as a… sister, which meant that in a way, Kate was gaining another daughter.

And Kate was just fine with that.

* * *

Later that night…

"So what's your story?" Pen questioned as she rolled over in the extra sleeping bag the Andersons had found for her. "I don't remember mine, so… why don't you tell me yours?"

"Um," Riley stammered, taken aback by the sudden question. "I was born in Minnesota and lived there for the first eleven years of my life. I had a great friend named Meg, and I was the star player on my hockey team, but… then we moved right after my eleventh birthday. Now, I'm in a strange place that isn't my home, and I have no friends here, and… and…"

Riley abruptly stopped speaking, shocked by the wet sensation that suddenly found itself on her cheeks. She was crying _again_. What was going on with her, lately? She wiped the tears away, hoping Pen hadn't seen them in the dark.

But Pen had seen the raindrops cascading down the girl's face as a cloud passed over Riley, bringing with it the coldness and dreariness of a storm.

Pen smiled, hoping the comforting grin would be a ray of light to shine through the gray clouds and stop the rain that was falling down Riley's cheeks because even if Pen hadn't known Riley long, she didn't like seeing her cry.

"Hey," Pen whispered. "It's okay. You have a friend now, right? That is what we are, isn't it? Friends?"

Riley hadn't really thought about that, but Pen was correct. She did have a friend now, and maybe… maybe moving wasn't such a bad thing if it meant she got to meet Pen, the girl she was already forming an almost sisterly connection with after only a few hours of knowing her.

"Yeah. Friends."

* * *

 _Honestly, I feel like this chapter needs to be improved, but I'm not sure **what** needs to be improved. I'm not sure if it needs more detail or if the chapter should flow better or something else entirely, but something about this chapter makes me feel like it needs improvement, so if you have any thoughts on what aspects can be better about this chapter, please leave your thoughts in a review or a Private Message._

 _Notes:_

 _1\. Most police are amazing. I made the ones in this chapter seem like jerks because Pen will eventually be put into the missing persons database, and I needed a reason for the police to not figure out who she was. I have an idea for Hiro, but I wasn't sure what to do for Penny, so I had the reason be that the cops weren't really trying to find out who she was. I just wanted to say that the police in this chapter do not represent police in real life because almost all of the people in the police department are amazing heroes._

 _2._ _Riley's parents... I named the father Bill because I've seen other people use that name for him in their fanfictions. I named the mother Kate because her credit card reads K. Anderson in the movie, so I decided to name her something that started with K._


End file.
